A document distributed in the IDF has determined that an official ceremony will be conducted in November marking the end of all instructional activity at the Gaza Strip vicinity basic training depot of Zikim.
Despite progressing preparations IDF officials have announced that it has not yet been decided how the base will be re-manned.
| Triumphant |
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| Islamic Jihad: Zikim evacuation a victory / Ali Waked |
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IDF decision to withdraw new recruits from base perceived as triumph by Gaza terror group. 'Our rockets on Zikim and the rest of the region have forced the enemy to flee. This is a massive achievement for the resistance,' says spokesman |
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Ynet reported
for the first time a few weeks ago that the army is preparing to remove the young soldiers from the basic training base within a few months.
While the base took some hard Qassam rocket hits, the army explained that the move is unconnected to the threat of rockets from the Gaza Strip and that other soldiers will be stationed there.
As of now, it seems as thought the IDF will start translating IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Major-General Dan Harel’s decisions into actions. An order stating the date at which the recruits will be leaving the base was set recently to November 27.
In the last few weeks, several meetings held on the subject and headed by Head of the GOC Army Headquarters Major-General Avi Mizrahi, presented the significant difficulty of closing the base and actualizing the decision.
This is because this move calls for the planning of different units in absorbing the basic trainees from Zikim.
Major-General Mizrahi finally determined that the base will be evacuated and a final command was instituted as a result of this decision.
IDF officials noted that despite the actual planning, there are still, “significant gaps” in the process. First and foremost, is the unwillingness of various IDF units to absorb thousands of basic trainees.
Moreover, a unit has not yet been chosen to man the large base and it has not been determined how the security structures which were recently brought there at the price of NIS 5 million (about $1.4 million) will be evacuated.
Ynet’s discovery on the IDF’s plans prior to the evacuation of the recruits sparked the wrath of the Gaza vicinity communities’ residents and of Knesset Members. According to them, it can’t be that the country will evacuate soldiers and leave civilians in the line of fire.
MK Limor Livnat (Likud) said that “in a civilized country the army defends civilians and not the other way around.”
Members of the various Gaza Strip terrorist organizations praised the decision and view this as a victory.
“The decision to evacuate basic trainees from Zikim is another victory for Palestinian resistance.
“Yesterday it was the Erez (Crossing), today Zikim, what will be the next place? I’m leaving it to the Israelis to determined where it will be,” said Abu Ahmed, a spokesman for the al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad.
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